More than 2,000 volunteers are helping Polish scientists restore the skeleton of a Mastodonsaurus, a fearsome aquatic predator from around the dawn of the dinosaur age, at Warsaw’s Copernicus Science Center. This fossil, unearthed in southern Poland 3 years ago, stands as the first Mastodonsaurus skeleton found in such a well-preserved, nearly complete state, according to the Copernicus Science Center itself.
These volunteers, armed with chisels, brushes, and protective goggles, meticulously chip away at rock encasing the bones. They work within a glass-walled laboratory on the ground floor of the center. Visitors watch this painstaking effort unfold on the nearly six-meter, or 20-foot, skeleton. Children point with excitement; parents observe. The work is precise, bone separated from rock millimeter by millimeter with a pneumatic chisel, its needle gently breaking away rock. Ultraviolet light reveals where bone ends and rock begins.
The volunteers aren't geologists or paleontologists. They're managers, cleaners, and tattoo artists. They receive training and special protective gear before beginning two-hour chiseling sessions under supervision. Tatyana Kozyk, the coordinator of these volunteer teams, expressed profound connection. “I imagine that those bones were lying underground for 240 million years and I am the first human on earth to touch them,” she said. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around this experience.”
National Endeavor
Tomasz Sulej, a paleontologist and professor at the Institute of Paleobiology at the Polish Academy of Sciences, confirmed the restored skeleton will be the largest exhibited in any museum worldwide upon its completion. This colossal find weighs 1,300 kilograms, or 2,865 pounds.
Sulej and his colleague Wojciech Pawlak from the Faculty of Geology at the Warsaw University are credited with the skeleton's discovery in southern Poland 3 years ago. They also conceived the idea to invite citizens to help restore it. Sulej noted the specimen's unique physical characteristics. “The structure of the body is different from what we knew so far,” he stated. “This is information that is completely new to the scientific world.” Other Mastodonsaurus skeletons, found in Germany and Russia, measure only around 2 to 3 meters, or 6½ to 10 feet, long.
The Mastodonsaurus lived about 240 million years ago during the Middle Triassic, a time when the earliest dinosaurs were appearing but hadn't yet dominated Earth. It functioned as an underwater ambush hunter, preying mainly on fish and smaller amphibians. Scientists believe it could grow to nearly six meters, or 20 feet, in length. It possessed a broad, flat head, long jaws, and sharp conical teeth, resembling a crocodile despite belonging to a different branch of the vertebrate family tree.
The People's Connection
Dorota Serafin, a 51-year-old manager from Warsaw who volunteers for the project, described working with the ancient animal's skeleton as “relaxing and philosophical, even mystical.” She plans to return for more sessions and eventually bring her family to Copernicus when the restored skeleton is exhibited, an event expected in October or November.
Project participants reflected on both the future and the past through their contact with the Mastodonsaurus. Sulej suggested the creature's story offers hope as humanity considers potential catastrophic effects of climate change. “The Mastodonsaurus lived after the great extinction, which shows one thing, that nature always manages,” he asserted. “It’s not true that humans can destroy life on this planet. Nature and life always find ways to survive.”